Regional One Championship – Finals

Martinborough have gone coast to coast to sweep through the pre-Christmas competition unbeaten and claim the Shirley Corlett Trophy in the premier division of Wairarapa Tennis interclub.

The Southerners put the icing on the cake with a 3-0 demolition of Carterton in the final round played at Opaki on Friday night and will now be hot favourites to claim the championship proper contested through the second half of the season.

Both of Martinborough’s regular players, Chris Wilkie and Marco De Groot, compiled unbeaten records and they barely raised a sweat against a Carterton team that fell away badly over the second round of the competition.

Wilkie, in particular, has been the form player in the region this season and with him at the helm Martinborough look well poised to dominate the interclub scene for the foreseeable future.

Gladstone claimed the runner-up position with a straightforward defeat of Masterton 3-0.

The young duo of Lochie McNab and Scott Day will only continue to improve and with a little more court-smarts they should soon be knocking on the door to challenge Martinborough.

The closest match of the night on Friday was the Opaki derby, in which the No.2 team of Chris Davidson and Brett Dymond edged their No.1 counterparts to claim in-house bragging rights.

Opaki 2 finished in third place and could count themselves a tad unlucky given they defeated Gladstone twice and accrued more wins than Gladstone.

Carterton and Opaki 1 will play a deferred match this week to determine the minor placings.